Feature Request: Grey Water System Control

[whackit]

Hello Everybody,

First post from a long time lurker. As all of you know we are suffering an unprecedented drought in the western US. Many people are starting to install grey water systems that recycle household waste water. There is a LOT of interest as there are practically no commercial solutions to greywater control at this point. Here is a brief summary of how the system works. I know little or nothing about software and circuit design but lots about systems and irrigation. Happy to exchange knowledge with anyone that can help.

Water is collected in a basin form the showers tubs washer etc. A float sensor lets a control know when there is water in the tank and starts a pump which sends the water through a filter and out to irrigate.

Ideally a controller for this system would have the following features:

1. Receive an input from a float switch and start/stop a motor (relay output). It would then send out water and time whatever zones it outputs to (just like a regular timer). It will need to keep track of how long the pump runs and whether programs are completed or not based on water availability.

2. At the end of the day if all the irrigation demands were not met by greywater it will make up any remaining program time with potable water. Important for vacation etc.(solenoid valve)

4. Keep track of total irrigation time to initiate a filter backwash cycle. This requires one signal to changeover a valve actuator and another to open and close a water solenoid. You would want to base it on greywater run time. EG Filter gets backwashed after every 20 hrs of greywater use.

5. Bonus would be data logging. EG How much Greywater was used. How much Potable.

There is NO decent control system out there for this. This would be a solution that could truly benefit greywater’s broader adoption.

Please contact me if I can provide any more info. I have a system installed and the hardware and plumbing half of things all figured out. I have been operating it manually but control would be the bees knees. I will happily provide plan details and hardware info to anyone willing to help.

[Ray]

Hi,

I believe what you described are all possible with OpenSprinkler. However, they will require changing the firmware code, as these features are not supported by default. For example, triggering watering from a float sensor is similar to how the rain sensor is implemented (which is supported by the firmware). Keeping track of total irrigation time, and logging are also fairly easy to implement.

We’ve received requests from time to time to customize the firmware. We don’t have the resources to customize the firmware on a user by user basis. When there is a common request, we will try to implement it and add it to the official firmware. One of the motivations to make the product open-source is to give users the freedom to change the firmware in any way they want. If you are not familiar with programming, hopefully this will be a good motivation to start learning to program 🙂

[whackit]

Thanks for your reply Ray!

Sadly my career and kids leaves me little time to learn to program, I would love to. But honestly it’s just not in the cards for me! I am also looking to get this implemented as soon as possible to take advantage of the public awareness the drought has caused. I have designed a system that uses off the shelf parts and will let a DIYer put together a commercial quality water recycling system for a tenth of the price.

If anyone is interested in helping me please let me know. I am setting up a site to put all of the information I have out there so water recycling becomes a reasonable alternative for everyone and not just an expensive commercial option.

[Ray]

I think it may be useful to set up a subforum that connects users who have customization need with developers / programmers who have the skills to modify the firmware. Will anyone be interested?

[Samiji]

Was there ever a solution you found @whackit
I know this thread is 5 years old but looking for resources for a Greywater system that also utilizes freshwater when not enough greywater is produced.

[Smartin]

@whackit you could pay a student under crushing debt to programm that for you.

@Samiji, what do you pay ^^, I’ll keep an eye out for wild variables 😉

In the meantime I’ll wet your eyes with the water purification capabilities of plants in a greywater system: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.07.003

[Author]

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